Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

What Was the First Online Dating Site?

FOX BUSINESS - June 15 - Gary Kremen founded the Match.com as one of several online classified ad businesses he planned to develop. The idea for the revolutionary platform came to Gary Kremen while he was in the shower. "I thought it would be really interesting to use the Internet for relationships, and to do it right," he said. By 1994, he owned the domain Match.com. The website went live in April of 1995. In 1997 Match was sold for $7M to Cendant, a Connecticut consumer-services company. In 1999, IAC acquired Match.

by Daniella Genovese
See full article at Fox Business

Mark Brooks: Not quite true. Webpersonals was started by Andrew Conru in 1994, and sold to the company that would become Lavalife in Canada. Webpersonals was the first. Not Match.com. Dr Conru then went on to start FriendFinder in 1996.

See the top news on Match.com

Match Is Still Refusing to Let Bisexuals Choose More Than One Gender

PINK NEWS - June 3 - Despite the fact that bi+ activists have been rallying for the feature for years, the company refused to allow users to choose more than one gender. Moreover, it emphasised that it offers "two-gender preferences", stonewalling non-binary users from joining. "Our site is for everyone but at the moment it's only set up for two gender preferences," the website's Twitter account stated. "Members can set up two profiles with their preferences and they only have to pay for one."

by Josh Milton
See full article at Pink News

See the top news on Match.com

Q&A With CEO of Match.com Hesam Hosseini

DMAGAZINE - May 22 - The coronavirus pandemic has forever changed the way singles connect, says CEO of Match and Match Affinity, Hesam Hosseini.

Q: How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis?
A: Our mission of sparking connections has never been more important. We want to do everything we can to help singles feel less isolated and more connected.

Q: Did your business continuity plan work, or were there surprises?
A: We had to reprioritized our roadmap and went to work building new ways for our members to connect.

Q: What are the short-term ramifications for your specific industry?
A: The tools singles are using to connect changed overnight. Now 70% of our members would use video chat; before pandemic, it was only 6%.

Q: Have you found silver linings in these difficult times?
A: I think our team has become closer than ever.

Q: How are you maintaining your company culture?
A: We hold all of our meetings over video and we use Slack constantly. We get together via virtual happy hours, puppy parties, story time with kids, mindfulness activities, and we even celebrated our 25th anniversary over Zoom this week.

Q: What will things look like for your company and industry in another six months?
A: We will likely keep some work-from-home flavor for a little while as we slowly dial back to normal, whatever that may look like.

by Ben Swanger
See full article at DMagazine

See the top news on Match.com
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The Top Dating Industry News for May 12th

OPW - May 12 - Tinder's Video Dating Feature, Match Group Q1 Financial Results, Helen Fisher on Dating in Pandemic, The Meet Group Q1 Financial Results.

For the top weekly dating industry news in ~2 minutes subscribe to OPW's Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Anchor , Stitcher , Overcast , Radio Public or Apple Podcasts . Listen to the trailer for the channel.

Some Dating App Users Are Listing Their COVID Status

BUSTLE - Apr 24 - For Maria, 38, a Tinder user, listing her health status is something she'd consider doing in order to match with more people and score more dates. "I was just speaking to a friend about dating amid COVID, and my plans to get an antibody test to determine my exposure," she tells Bustle. "In jest, I said I would post my test results if I had been exposed, in hopes that it would make me more marketable!" The problem is, many people can carry the virus without knowing it, or pick it up after testing negative. And that's why experts agree this trend is not only unhelpful but potentially dangerous. "This virus is so new, and there is the possibility of false positives or negatives, and who knows if new strains may even emerge," says Rachel DeAlto, the chief dating expert at Match. "For the time being, I don't think it's necessary and can potentially be inaccurate." A Bumble representative tells Bustle that ~100K users have updated their dating profiles to mention that they are self-quarantining.

by Carolyn Steber
See full article at Bustle

See the top news on Tinder
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How COVID-19 Killed Hookup Culture and Saved Romance

FAST COMPANY - Apr 21 - The use of Match, OkCupid, Tinder, and Hinge is surging, and video dating is becoming more and more normal, as people look for meaningful connections. But, with the world enduring a new lonely normal, single people are having to adapt, and there are few other options than video dating. Many of the world's biggest dating brands have rolled out new in-app video calling features - offering virtual happy hours, hotlines to dating experts, and ways to "date" people around the globe. The major dating apps are reporting surges in messaging. On Tinder, daily conversations have risen by 20%; OkCupid has seen a 30% increase in messages sent on the app globally since March 11. "We readjusted and reprioritized our road map," said Match's CEO Hesam Hosseini. Video chat wasn't a priority before the pandemic, when only 6% of users expressed interest in the feature. Due to the lack of other options, that interest has spiked to 69%. "I think we'll look back on this period and find that folks were forming pretty strong connections."

by Talib Visram
See full article at Fast Company

See the top news on Match.com         See the top news on OkCupid
See the top news on Tinder                See the top news on Hinge

The Top Dating Industry News, Podcast

OPW - Apr 21 - Bumble's New Features, Match.com's Vibe Check, eHarmony's Video Feature, Tagged's 1:1 Video Chat & Blind Date, Shaadi to Conduct Weddings Through Video Conferencing.

For the top weekly dating industry news in ~2 minutes subscribe to OPW's Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Anchor , Stitcher , Overcast , Radio Public or Apple Podcasts . Listen to the trailer for the channel.

Match CEO Says Video Dating Will Be Lasting Trend Post-Coronavirus

CHEDDAR - Apr 18 - Hesam Hosseini, CEO of Match told Cheddar Friday that despite being stuck at home, people are still looking to mingle. Many couples have been trying 'video dates' to connect with each other, although the CEO said couples started trying that method even before the coronavirus outbreak began. "Video has been around within dating, but adoption has been pretty low. We ran a survey and during COVID-19 we found that ~70% of singles are now interested in trying video, which is what led us to launch Vibe Check on Match," he said. Vibe Check is an in-app video calling service that allows singles to safely video chat with each other before deciding whether to exchange phone numbers. Hosseini thinks video dating will last after the pandemic is over.

See full article at Cheddar

See the top news on Match.com

Match Is Introducing Video Dating Feature - Vibe Check

HEARTBEAT - Apr 14 - Vibe Check is Match's new video feature that lets users chat and see someone live right in the Match app. Once users have matched and started a conversation, a black video icon will appear at the bottom of their messages. After agreeing to the terms and conditions, they'll be able to request a Vibe Check. The other member can either join right away or decline the request if it's not a good time.

See full article at Heartbeat (The Match Blog)

See the top news on Match.com

Match Is Giving the Dinner Bell Foundation $30k to Feed COVID-19 First Responders

DALLAS INNOVATES - Apr 8 - Match.com is making a $30k donation in total to the Dinner Bell Foundation, a nonprofit created by the barbecue connoisseurs at Pecan Lodge. Match is starting with a $15k donation, and for every additional dollar given, will match it up to $15k. That equates to ~5,000 free meals. The Dinner Bell Foundation will use the funds to connect restaurants with healthcare workers and first responders.

by Alex Edwards
See full article at Dallas Innovates

See the top news on Match.com

Tinder Most Used Dating App Now

FORBES - Mar 29 - The 2020 SKYN Condoms Sex & Intimacy Survey was not designed to examine the current or post-COVID-19 world. Its data gathering and results just happened to take place while the global pandemic was getting its boots on and heading out from Wuhan. According to Skyn, 39% of respondents used Tinder over its rivals to find love. Generation Z folks said they were more likely than Millennials to use Tinder (48% to 36%). #2 was Match.com (33%) and #3 Bumble (19%).

by John Scott Lewinski
See full article at Forbes

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See the top news on Bumble
See the top news on Match.com

Online Dating Gets Political With Match.com's New Profiles

FORBES - Mar 9 - Match users setting up their dating profiles can now choose from one of nine "political view" options. They can pick anything from "apolitical" or "independent" to "moderate" or "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" - with the standard polarized camps of "progressive" or "conservative" also standing ready.

by John Scott Lewinski
See full article at Forbes

See all posts on Match.com

The Top Dating Industry News for Feb 25th

OPW - Feb 25 - Top grossing dating app, How much Americans spend on dates, Match.com new safety feature.

For the top weekly dating industry news in ~2 minutes subscribe to OPW's Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Anchor , Stitcher , Overcast , Radio Public or Apple Podcasts . Listen to the trailer for the channel.

Match.com Lets Users Alert Friends When Their Date Goes Bad

TOM'S GUIDE - Feb 19 - The Date Check-in feature is the latest safety measure for Match Group's dating apps. With the Date Check-In on Match.com, users are able to let people know they're on a date and to send them an SOS if they're feeling unsafe during the date. Tinder added a similar safety feature last month. In the case of Tinder, the safety features tie into a separate Noonlight app that also provides a panic button for alerting people when they feel unsafe.

by Philip Michaels
See full article at Tom's Guide

See all posts on Match.com

Report: Dating Site & Ad Tracking

MASHABLE - Feb 11 - A new report from Ghostery, which creates products to detect and block data trackers, reveals which dating sites are using ad trackers. A data tracker is a snippet of code that companies such as Facebook and Amazon can implement onto other sites. Ad trackers on dating sites, for example, retarget the user on other websites. If a user goes to Match.com, the next time they go on Facebook they may be served an ad for Match.

by Anna Iovine
See full article at Mashable